Symbiosis: Chemical Biology at Wisconsin

Abstract

C hemical biology has been percolating at the University of Wisconsin (UW)–Madison for most of the university’s history (www.chemicalbiology. wisc.edu; 1–4). UW–Madison played a predominant role in early research on vitamins—those small molecules that are essential in trace amounts for human life. There, Harry Steenbock developed the irradiation process for the production of vitamin D and thereby eliminated the scourge of rickets (5, 6). Vitamin A was discovered at Wisconsin, as were the vitamin B complex and the hormonal form of vitamin D. Karl Paul Link isolated the potent anticoagulant dicoumarol there and then synthesized warfarin, an analogue that is still a common chemotherapeutic agent. Microbial fermentation methods developed at UW–Madison enabled the large-scale biosynthesis of penicillin and other antibiotics. H. Gobind Khorana carried out the first chemical synthesis of a gene there (7), andW. S. Johnson and Eugene van Tamelen devised synthetic routes to steroids inspired by the biosynthesis of this critical class of natural products (8). The use of natural protease inhibitors to devise highly effective inhibitors of aspartyl proteases was an insight that arose atWisconsin andwas used to design potent HIV protease inhibitors (9). These and other triumphs demonstrate an early symbiosis of chemistry and biology, which fostered the training of eminent interdisciplinary scientists such as Carl Djerassi and Ralph Hirschmann. Seeking to coalesce the well-established success in research at the interface between chemistry and biology, Dan Rich sought one of the initial Chemistry–Biology Interface (CBI) Training Grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1993. His vision was to provide graduate students with a multitude of opportunities for interdisciplinary training in chemistry and biology. The process of preparing the grant application launched the UW–Madison program in chemical biology (www.chemical biology.wisc.edu). The now long-standing NIH training grant remains a core component of graduate training in chemical biology at the university. Since the inception of the training program, UW–Madison’s commitment to graduate-student training in chemical biology has increased. For example, the university has made the recruitment of faculty members with research interests in chemical biology a priority. As a result, graduate students have a wide variety of research options from which to choose. In addition, a powerful infrastructure for conducting chemical biology research has been built. Third, courses in chemical biology have been developed that employ innovative teaching methods. These courses are designed not only to introduce students to concepts in chemical biology but also to build their skills in critical thinking, creative problem selection, and communication. Lastly, students affiliated with *Corresponding author, kiessling@chem.wisc.edu.